Thursday, January 29, 2015

Should property owners be consulted before tree planting?

In November, state Sen. Tony Avella (D-Bayside) stood in front of his office with some homeowners asking the city to let them decide if they want a new tree planted close to their properties.

They claimed problems with trees include breaking sewer lines, pushing up sidewalks and the non-removal of stumps.

According to Avella, a letter he received from the city agency noted, “Just as residents do not determine the placement of city infrastructure such as traffic lights, bus stops or fire hydrants, they are unable to refuse the planting of a city tree in the public right-of-way.”

The lawmaker fired back, saying that “when a city refuses to hear the voices of its residents, something is profoundly wrong.”

The legislator noted that he is drafting legislation “to ensure that we are able to maintain the trees that we have before subjecting homeowners and residents to the liabilities that come with planting new ones.”

Avella said he had a meeting with officials at Parks, but they told him that the policy would not be changed.

The tree will not cause any problem, if any,until it is fully matured....about 40 or 50 years from now. His house as well as his neighbors will have been converted into one massive multiple housing complex by then.

As a homeowner in Queens who had a city tree (between the sidewalk and street) push up a sidewalk- Parks department has emailed me stating that the Parks Department will replace the sidewalk. The tree is not my property and therefor any damages caused by it are not my responsibility.

The holder of the deed to his or her property has the right of landscaping as they wish. Since they do not own NYC's collective property, they have no rights in the matter of what the city plants on the verge strips. If you do not like trees, then move into an apartment in a concrete jungle.

A couple of months ago, I saw a Chinese woman swinging from the branch of a tree in front of my yard, by the curb. It certainly appeared that she was deliberately trying to break the branch off. I opened the window and told her off in no uncertain terms. Haven't seen that nut job around since.

It's bad enough that Chinese bums come around to our recycling garbage cans and rummage through them. By now they've learned there's no redeemable bottles in mine--I return my own bottles.

While birdwatching in Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge, I once had to tell some more Chinese nuts to stop embracing and rubbing against the trees. You'd have thought they were cats in heat, the weird way they were interacting with the trees (which is illegal in the park, you are not allowed to do stuff to the trees which might damage them). What the heck is with that, rubbing against and embracing trees? Is that some splinter (haha) Chinese religious group?

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